Page 23 of Casino King

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Smiling, I bite my lower lip and open the jewelry box, only to have my smile vanish as I take in the necklace. A dark, blood red ruby hangs from a gold chain, matching my earrings perfectly. It’s stunning. Closing the box, I hurry to change and wipe off my makeup.

Alec scares me in the best of ways. I know I shouldn’t accept his gifts. I know I shouldn’t go and meet him again. I know I should stay away from him. But I also know I like the way I feel when I’m around him. I like the way I feel about myself when I’m around him.

He makes me feel seen, beautiful, important, worthy.

I haven’t felt those things about myself in a very long time. The fact that he also screams danger doesn’t even register as a deterrent for me. Because along with that danger comes the promise of life, and I want to feel alive again.

I want to dance in the summer storm, fully knowing I might get struck by lightning.

I almost welcome it.

“Hey, E.” I smile, finding him waiting for me out in the back hallway.

“Hey, T,” he replies with a small smile.

When we reach the penthouse, Enzo unlocks the door and I step through, my eyes immediately meeting Alec’s, who’s sitting in the chair facing me.

Standing, he buttons his crisp black suit jacket and walks towards me, his eyes holding mine the entire time.

Lord have mercy, he knows how to wear a suit unlike any man I’ve ever seen. As if he walked straight off Milan’s runway and onto the cover of GQ, and then kept walking towards me.

Each step closer stirs the air around me. That force I felt last week at being near him, and have been craving every day since, magnifies to the point of feeling as if I’m physically being pulled into his orbit when he’s right in front of me.

Reaching out, Alec lightly grips my chin between his thumb and forefinger, and I feel the touch straight to my stomach, knotting it up in anticipation and delight.

He turns my head to the side to look over my face. “How are you?” he asks, his low, velvety voice instinctively making my eyes close for a moment and a little sigh to leave my lips.

Everything he does, I react to. I can only imagine how I’ll react when his touch is on more than just my face and his voice is commanding me to do whatever he wants.

Holding back a moan at just the thought of being with him, I sway where I stand, and Alec places his other hand on my hip to steady me. I feel his heat burning me through my thin cotton top, and when my eyes clash with his again, they’re penetrating mine – searching for answers to questions I’m not sure I would even know how to answer.

“I’m taking you out tonight,” he says low, so close to my lips that I can feel his warm breath against mine.

“You are?”

“Yes. Choose anything you’d like from my sister’s closet. Something nice.”

“Okay,” I whisper, the knots in my stomach turning to butterflies.

Stepping back, he releases me, and I take a moment to regain myself before heading off down the hall in a blind haze to the room I stayed in last week.

After a shower, I dry my hair straight and reapply my makeup. I had hoped I wouldn’t be going back to my apartment tonight, so I made sure to bring my makeup and toiletries in anticipation. I bit presumptuous, but I don’t care. I thought about him nonstop this week, and I knew if he was going to be at the show tonight, then maybe I wouldn’t be going home.

I play up my hazel eyes with a nude palette smokey eye and a few extra layers of mascara.

Padding across the room, I walk into the closet and run my hand over the rows and rows of clothes. He said something nice, so I stop in front of the dresses section, one in particular catching my eye straight away.

Smiling, I know it’ll catch Alec’s eye too, so I pull it out and find matching heels and a small purse to go with it.

When I slip it on, I turn in the mirror and smile.

The red cocktail dress fits me like it was made for me. The red satin material is overlain with red lace flowers that seem to grow across my body like vines, inviting the eye to follow the lines.

It hits me mid-thigh so it’s not too short, and the rounded neckline doesn’t show too much cleavage, but the back is what’s the showstopper. Thin straps hold the dress up and then crisscross in three large x’s down the length of my back, tying at the base of my spine.

Reaching back, I tie the satin strings together and then slip my feet into matching red satin heels that tie around my ankles.

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